A vehicular seat stowing apparatus is designed to fold a rearmost row of a seat in a passenger compartment so as to stow the folded seat below a floor. By stowing the rearmost row of the seat below the floor, a space for loading luggage is available in a rear part of a vehicle. A technique for stowing a seat below the floor in that manner is known from patent literature 1. The technique know from patent literature 1 will be discussed below with reference to FIG. 19 and FIG. 20 hereof. FIG. 19 shows a conventional vehicular seat stowing apparatus before stowing a seat. FIG. 20 shows the conventional vehicular seat stowing apparatus after stowing the seat.
As shown in FIG. 19 and FIG. 20, the conventional vehicular seat stowing apparatus 200 includes a stowing recessed portion 203 formed in a floor 202 and located rearwardly of and below a rearmost row of a seat 201. The apparatus 200 also includes a support mechanism 204 supporting the seat 201 to allow the seat 201 in a seatable position to swing into the stowing recessed portion 203. The support mechanism 204 includes a bracket 205 attached to an inside of the stowing recessed portion 203, and a support shaft 207 through which a rear portion of a seat cushion 206 is supported by the bracket 205 in such a manner that the seat cushion 206 swings in a front-and-rear direction of a vehicle. The seat 201 in a folded position can swing rearwardly to be stowed in the stowing recessed portion.
As shown in FIG. 20, the stowed seat 201 has a bottom surface 201a substantially flush with the floor 202 for allowing loading of luggage. The support mechanism 204 is received in the stowing recessed portion 203 without protruding above the floor 202 so that the support mechanism 204 does not hinder luggage from being loaded on a rear part of the vehicle. In order that the support mechanism 204 does not protrude above the floor 202, however, the rear portion of the seat cushion 206 must be disposed lower than the floor 202, as shown in FIG. 19. This is disadvantageous in terms of enhancing a degree of freedom to design the seat 201 and the support mechanism 204.
A height Hi of the seat 201 from the floor 202 and a positional relationship between the seat 201 and the stowing recessed portion 203 vary depending upon a type of the vehicle. When the height Hi of the seat 201 from the floor 202 is large, the support shaft 207 supporting the rear portion of the seat cushion 206 has a large height. In this case, the support mechanism 204 protrudes above the floor 202 when the seat 201 is stowed in the stowing recessed portion 203. To address this problem with the protrusion of the support mechanism 204, a great change must be made to a shape and size of the support mechanism 204 as well as to positioning of the support mechanism 204 relative to the seat 201 and the stowing recessed portion 203. That is, there is a room to enhance a degree of freedom to design the support mechanism 204.